Impact of COVID-19 on Hospitality, Leisure, and Travel Industries

This report provides an analysis of the significant challenges encountered by the hospitality, leisure, and travel industries as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines the impact of the virus and associated restrictions on business operations, revenue generation, and future growth prospects. The report highlights the difficulties stemming from social distancing measures, consumer behavior shifts, labor shortages, and the decline in leisure activities, and the subsequent economic repercussions. It also explores the adaptation strategies implemented, such as the use of technology for contactless services, and discusses the long-term implications of the pandemic on consumer behavior, industry practices, and the need for continuous monitoring and adaptation to the changing landscape. The report also touches upon the impact on education, particularly in sectors like tourism and hospitality, which rely heavily on practical work. Finally, the report concludes by emphasizing the importance of adapting to new consumer behaviors and leveraging technological advancements to provide a better experience for guests.

Writing for Business
and Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Challenges of hospitality leisure and travel industry during COVID-19....................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In recent decades, terrorism and local criminality have emerged as two main threats to the
tourism industry. The retractile nature of tourism, which indicates that it is likely to retreat in the
face of external dangers, has encouraged analysts and professionals to question the precautionary
doctrine’s logic. Radicalized groups have recently battered tourists and world-wide travellers in
key European cities as well as the Middle East (Litvin and Smith, 2021). When the number of
foreign visitors drops, it's important not to lose sight of the fact that terrorism generates a
diplomatic spat between the countries receiving and delivering the tourists. Aside from that,
industry experts have attempted to predict the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global
hotel industry in 2020, predicting a profit drop of 11-29 percent. Emergency steps to restrict the
virus’s spread are already having a big impact on pubs, cafes, and hotels, according to reports
(Singh, Bhatia and Nigam, 2021). According to a European survey, cancellations have climbed
by nearly half, and hospitality organisations believe that they could lose up to 33% as a result of
the government’s emergency measures. Tourism has traditionally been one of the industries that
has been hardest damaged by pandemics and crises. The tourism industry is in a unique position
because transportation is a vector for spreading the virus. As a result, it is routinely used to
disrupt the virus's transmission cycle. Tourism has a dynamic element that necessitates
movement, which facilitates viral spread inexorably. Individual movement by air raises the
likelihood of viruses spreading at a much faster rate than usual (Polyzos, Samitas and Spyridou,
2020). As a result, tourism is both a stimulant for virus propagation and a victim of virus spread.
MAIN BODY
Challenges of hospitality leisure and travel industry during COVID-19
The drastic impact of COVID-19 is visible in case of the hospitality, leisure and travel
industry. The main reason that these industries are facing the most difficult times due to COVID-
19 in comparison to other industries is because these industries require presence of large number
of people including consumers and employees in public spaces which restricted in order to stop
the spread of the virus (Gallego and Font, 2020). Relaxation in the COVID-19 travel restrictions
has created a challenge for the travel industry. The challenge of ensuring that the COVID-19
guidelines are followed by consumers and staff members so the dispersion of Virus is stopped
affects the daily business activities, revenue generated and future growth of the travel industry.

The daily business activities of the business firms engaged in the travel industry have
been affected by the pandemic as social distancing is essential part of stopping the spread of the
Virus which means the less amount of staff is present in the firm at a particular given situations,
In addition to this there is a rise in consumers selecting short haul travelling packages with rental
cars and hotels because consumers feel safer when they are travelling with their family only (The
new normal? Travel in the world of Covid-19, 2021). Another challenge raised by the pandemic
is related to margining consumers unwilling to follow COVID-19 guidelines. Enterprises in the
travelling industry have to carefully deal with such consumers as they are current consumer base
of the company and it is the responsibility of the company to provide satisfactory services to the
consumers but on the other hand such consumers are risk to the safety of the staff members and
other consumers of the organisation. The actions taken by the company against such consumers
need to be calculated so that the firm does not appear insensitive to the unwilling consumer while
ensuring safety of staff and rest of the consumers of the company.
The hospitality industry is also affected by the COVID-19. The main barrier faced by the
hospitality industry as a result of COVID-19 is the lack of skilled labour. COVID-19 pandemic
has resulted in shortage of skilled labour which can be accessed by small business enterprises in
the hospitality industry at low costs (Tuzovic, Kabadayi and Paluch, 2021). This challenge has
increased the difficulties for hospitality business firms as increased staff costs coupled with
decrease of consumers due to have created dire situations for hospitality firm. This situation is
amplified when it comes to small business organisations as low profitability affects the survival
of these firms in the intensely competitive hospitality industry negatively.
The hospitality and leisure industry contributes 5% of national GDP and employs 10% of
the workforce. The primary tourist generating areas for the United Kingdom include major
European nations such as Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, the United States, and
Australia. Such sourcing regions accounted for more than 60% of all incoming visitors, with
China and Canada being amongst the top ten in terms of revenues (Guffey and Loewy, 2021).
Loss of jobs in these nations will reduce interest for leisure travel, impacting tourism in the UK.
The severity of the virus and the period of associated travel restrictions will determine the entire
influence of COVID-19 on global tourism. The public's reaction will also have an influence on
the entire damage, specifically in the near term after travel bans are relaxed. The current health
crisis, along with a no-deal scenario Brexit might have a severe negative impact on the UK hotel

industry. Policy experts, lawmakers, and the hotel industry organisation are collaborating to
develop advantageous migration policies and corporate tariffs in accordance to the industry's
economic demands. The continuing epidemic has also had a significant impact on the education
sector across the world (Marsh, Guth and Short, 2020). The COVID-19 epidemic has impacted
90 percent of the worldwide population of students, with some more than 1.5 billion children
from over 190 nations missing school. The condition is still serious in higher education, although
schools are rising to the issue of addressing students' demands through online programmes. It is
essential noting that sectorial schooling, such as tourism and hospitality, which progressively
rely on practical work, are expected to be severely impacted. The COVID-19 epidemic has
resulted in the suspension of several business events, global conference gatherings, sporting
activities, and social gatherings. International travel prohibitions, in addition to the UK's
lockdown and social distancing procedures, are projected to have a significant influence on the
hotel industry in the UK. This outbreak will very certainly have a substantial influence on the
study objectives of hospitality business and management researchers. With the hotel sector
facing new problems in the COVID-10 age, hospitality researchers are required to alter their
research area to offer industry solutions. Almost all eateries were instructed to restrict its
activities to take-out solely. Travel limitations and stay-at-home guidelines made by the
government resulted in a significant drop in hotel occupancy and income. Although, the
restoration process takes place incrementally, and regulators has moved to relax limitations, such
as allowing dine-in restaurants to reopened at a limited occupancy with strict social distancing
standards, and progressively reducing prohibitions on internal and foreign travel (Gray, 2019).
The leisure sector which includes business firms which provides facilities such as
swimming pools, GYM, licensed bar, aerobics studio, sauna or steam room is facing barriers
crated by COVID-19 pandemic. The primary challenge related to the leisure industry is the
downfall in consumers due to the COVID-19 restrictions banning most sports activities and
public gatherings. Leisure business firms are unable to generate revenue and survive in the
current environment. The leisure facilities provided by business firms in the United Kingdom
face a weekly loss of £90 million because of the pandemic (Leisure facilities face £90m a week
loss under UK winter Covid-19 lockdown, 2021). The closure of gyms, leisure centres and
swimming pools at the beginning of this year caused huge amount of damage to leisure industry
because consumers usually renew their GYM memberships and swimming pool access with

business firms at the start of the year. The restrictions and safety risks which are outcome of
COVID-19 resulted in minimum number of consumer leisure facility renewal by consumers and
the leisure industry suffered huge losses. Public and private fitness and leisure operators will
require additional, tailored financial and regulatory support for their recovery.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it is identified that during the economy will be the key short-term
issue, one of the most important long-term jobs will be to continuously monitor and adapt to the
dynamic forces driving new consumer behaviour, consumption habits, perceptions, expectations,
and trends. Almost the entire planet is under lockdown right now. This will have long-term
societal ramifications and habits. The good news for the tourism and hospitality industry is that
one of their savings goals is to use the funds for future travel and vacations. As a result of the
pricing wars, independent hotel businesses have had the chance to better grasp the shift in
expectations and consumption habits that has happened. Furthermore, hoteliers have found
artificial intelligence (AI) to be increasingly beneficial. Using facial recognition software to
grant hotel guests access to their rooms/venues, for example, improves the convenience and
efficiency of check-in and check-out. The combination of 5G, AI, and live streaming expands the
possibilities for developing a real-time, personalised service networking system for hotel guests
based on real-time data. Face recognition hardware companies have developed a system for
noncontact body temperature measurement and facial recognition in response to the COVID-19
pandemic, addressing the pressing need to contain the virus quickly.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Online
Leisure facilities face £90m a week loss under UK winter Covid-19 lockdown, 2021. [Online]
Available through; https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jan/07/leisure-facilities-
face-90m-a-week-loss-under-uk-winter-covid-19-lockdown
The new normal? Travel in the world of Covid-19, 2021. [Online] Available through;
http://www.bbc.com/storyworks/travel/travel-on/the-new-normal-travel-in-the-covid-
19-world